mortiz053

Syllabus writing season, for me, can be a bit of a bittersweet exercise. Sort of like Tom Hanks in the beginning of You've Got Mail , I love the beginning of fall and continue to be optimistic that this academic year will be better than the last. At the same time, in order to get there, I have to think about what worked and what didn't work in my classes. Reading student evaluations is a part of that process (more on that tomorrow). But so is my own self-assessment, which can be just as frustrating but for different reasons. I'm constantly wondering how I could have taught an event or idea better. So active UNI Honors students and I left the classroom to discuss the U.S. and Global Islam outside (Fall 2017) Whether I'm teaching a new course or a course in my regular rotation, I like to try new things. This is a direct result of my time at FSU. Like any grad program with a strong institutional memory or social cohort, we shared teaching strategies and swapped stories abo...

My bitmoji reacts to Back to School products hitting the shelves As July turns to August, it's approaching that time to recognize that summer is, in fact, ending and the fall semester is approaching again (always too quickly, ammirite?). In an effort to squeeze out as much summer time as possible, I'd like to share two syllabus writing tools I've come to know and love. Both come from the good people at Rice University's Center for Teaching Excellence . On a ridiculously consistent basis, I botch my course schedule. I usually don't have a problem with organizing the content of my course schedule--that may take me awhile, but I enjoy piecing together readings, podcasts, lectures, and in-class activities to create a cohesive course. No, no, the part I regularly mess up is the calendar. As in the actual dates of my class meetings. I will inevitably use a Wednesday date for a Tuesday/Thursday class or, in one instance, just leave out an entire week. (Although that wasn...